Where America Stands: The Explosive Foreign-Policy Psychodrama of the GOP Will Make Your Head Explode

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TAMPA, Fla. — As if Iraq never happened, Republicans on Wednesday night doubled down on the George W. Bush foreign policy, especially the idea of fighting for human rights all over the world — or as my CIA dad used to say, in disgust at soft-hearted liberals, "imposing democracy at the barrel of a gun." (Dad preferred covert manipulation of foreign elections, but that's another story).

John McCain got the ball rolling by saying that the nomination of Mitt Romney was "for greater purpose than advancing our party — it is the best hope for our country and the world." But not because of economic issues: "What Mitt Romney knows and we know is that success at home also depends on our leadership in the world."

This leadership includes some surprisingly liberal values, apparently, like "helping others eradicate disease, lift themselves from poverty, and determine their own destinies."

McCain earned his first applause with the Romney campaign's favorite foreign-policy slogan:

"And always we have led from the front, never from behind!"

(Okay, Dwight Eisenhower might have some quibbles with that, having spent World War II hondeling Churchill and Montgomery and Patton and all the other big egos, but never mind.)

"This is what makes America an exceptional nation," McCain continued. But in the last few years, said the last Republican nominee for commander in chief, we have "drifted away from our proudest traditions, traditions that were truly bipartisan."

McCain is old enough to remember when this was true — when cold-war Democrats led the noble fight against totalitarian communism. And in that bipartisan sprit he quite naturally praised President Obama for his brave leadership in killing Osama Bin Laden — no, just kidding, he didn't say that. In fact, nobody mentioned Osama Bin Laden the whole night. Nobody has mentioned him the whole week. What McCain did say is that Obama is raising doubts about America in our allies all over the world — "especially Israel, which is facing an existential threat —and he said Obama has given Russia and China "a veto over how we defend our interests and values around the world" and endangered the security of the nation by "leaking the secrets of their operations to the media."

These are not serious comments. Leaks are impossible to contain, Obama has prosecuted leakers aggressively, and it's just absurd to say Obama has given Russia and China a "veto" over anything. You could certainly say he's not been as aggressive on trade and currency issues as he might be, but "veto?"

Obama has also been struggling to get Russia's cooperation in Syria and Iran, but the last time McCain had a specific suggestion on how to deal with Russia, he was pushing a war to defend the sovereignty of Georgia — the country, not the state. While we were still fighting two wars in the Middle East. And yes, it's true: Obama is causing doubt in Israel as far as our level of support for a pre-emptive strike on Iran, but was John McCain really suggesting, again, that we should bomb-bomb-bomb Iran? Is this now the official position of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party? Or is it meaningless and dangerous saber-rattling?

McCain also criticized Obama for "committing to a withdrawal from Afghanistan before peace has been achieved, the president has emboldened our enemies." Your head explodes at stuff like this. So the Romney administration wants to stay in Afghanistan? Until we achieve "peace?" Any timetable on that, Senator?

No wonder his very next line was that we can't afford another $500 billion in cuts to our defense budget, which earned enthusiastic applause from this audience of wanna-be deficit-cutters. Sigh.

McCain took on two specific cases: Libya and Syria. In Libya, he accused Obama of nothing less than abandoning the cause of human freedom. "Iranians rose up by the millions and they chanted in English, 'Are you with us.... The whole world watched as they were shot and bled to death in the street.... The president missed the opportunity to... rid the Middle East of a dictator."

Not mentioned: Qaddafi is dead, the revolution succeeded, and no American blood was shed.

Regarding Syria, McCain spoke passionately of the "savage and unfair fight" with full weapons and tanks supplied by Iran and Hezbollah murdering men women and children. Sadly, he said, "Our president has not remained true to our values." There may be a legitimate case that Obama hasn't been aggressive enough in his aid to the rebels, although it is still far too early to know what covert activities he is conducting behind the scenes. Famously, the CIA's victories are rarely publicized, and their current activities never are. But making it a question of values instead of strategy is a dangerous path, as Republicans used to warn constantly back when they inclined to the old Kissinger-Nixon foreign-policy "realism" — another thing that has drifted off with the Ghost of the Republican Past.

Summing up, McCain laid on the corn: "I trust that Romney knows that good can triumph over evil, justice triumph over injustice and love can conquer hate."

A movie of Romney in Israel followed, with multiple shots of Romney and Netanyahu looking chummy and — for the pious touch — Romney touching the wailing wall with his best Judeo-Mormon solemnity. "A free and strong America will always stand with a free and strong Israel," the video promised.

Ah, but poor old John McCain got the snub from America yet again, because when Condoleezza Rice came up to give the second foreign-policy speech of the night, the crowd erupted in the biggest cheer of the night, a cheer that was long and sustained and appeared to be genuinely enthusiastic. Combining military bearing with a shiny red silk dress, Rice began by invoking 9/11 in some of the most lyrical language of the evening. "I can remember as if it were yesterday when my young assistant came into my office in the White House and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, then a second plane, then a third plane hit the Pentagon, and then I learned that another had plane crashed onto a field in Pennsylvania, driven to the ground by brave souls who perished so others might live."

What happened after that, she completely skipped: the war in Afghanistan, losing Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora because she and Bush were already moving troops to Iraq, invading Iraq on "bad intelligence," and all the rest of that long national nightmare inflicted on us by... who was Secretary of State again?

Instead, she went straight to the universal desire for liberty and Obama's neglect of the Arab Spring. "Dictators in Iran and Syria butcher their people and threaten regional security, and Russia and China prevent a response and everyone asks, where does America stand? Indeed, where does America stand? That is the question of the hour."

Her answer? "We stand for freedom and democracy."

But unlike McCain, oddly, Rice did not invoke Israel or even mention Israel at all. Nor did she offer any specific guidance about how to stand for freedom of democracy.

Bravely, Rice pushed on the sore point of foreign aid, a perpetual annoyance to many Republicans. "It has been hard to muster resources to support fledgling democracies and intervene in the most desperate countries" — like Uganda, Zimbabwe, and even "the young women trapped in the sex trade in Southeast Asia." After a nod to private charities and people of faith, she pleaded again: "I know it appears we have carried these burdens long enough, but we can only know that there is no choice."

Just when the mood was dipping, she added "we cannot lead from behind," and Pavlovian cheers exploded.

But soon, after a few comments about free trade, unexpected support for alternative energy, and a pitch for "immigration laws that protect our border and yet show we are a compassionate nation," Rice pivoted to her true function and greatest appeal within the Republican Party, modeling the American dream. An idea united us, she said, the idea that "it doesn't matter where you came from but where you are going."

The emotion began to rise in the room as she got more personal. "My fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each other successes.... Americans have believed that you might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your response to your circumstances." And we fought a civil war, she said, and emerged with a more perfect union full of "patriots determined to overcome slavery and segregation."

Finally, Condoleezza Rice went for the full Monty:

"On a personal note," she said, consider a little girl who grows up in Birmingham, a segregated city in the South where her parents can't take her to a restaurant or movie theatre and she can grow up to become Secretary of State."

The crowd exploded into a huge standing ovation of sustained applause, revealing both a sweet Americanism of the most profound (and progressive) sort and also a deeply cynical use of her skin color to bolster their endless desire for self-congratulation. In this as in their foreign policy, the Republicans seem to be more interested in psychodramas of identity than in actual policy — the boring, complicated, endlessly humbling process of diplomacy. Which is why, when they're in office, we so often end up in a war.